Scoreboard: Wellness program

Wall Street was buoyed by corporate earnings and a surge of biotech M&A activity.

Stronger-than-expected earnings and some action in the merger space gave stocks a boost overnight. On the earnings front companies such as Netflix, Harley Davidson and Comcast reported stronger results. Then most of the merger activity or proposed activity was in the healthcare space and stocks on both sides of the pond surged here. Valeant Pharmaceuticals has offered to merge with Allergen in a $45 billion deal while in Europe, AstraZeneca has apparently been approached for a takeover from Pfizer and there is talk of an asset swap deal between GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis.

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